Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance ~ Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin review

Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance
Walker Books for Young Readers
February 1, 2011
240 pages
Amazon for more info/to order

Jenna, played by Charlie Tracker, and Jonah, played by Fielding Withers (a stage name) have been in a fauxmance for years. What's a fauxmance you may ask? When two attractive young stars of a popular tween television show pretend to be madly in love with each other--much to the delight of fans and the press--that's a fauxmance. A faux romance.

Say what you will about Charlie and Fieldings acting on their show (it's a bit like Hannah Montana with the teen who's secretly a popstar), but no one's yet figured out Jenna and Jonah's big secret: they can't stand each other.

That's right, they might have all the moves down pat--they've even given some of them names--but really Jenna and Jonah want nothing more than to be rid of their relationship.

...And they just might have their chance now that the paparazzi seem to have found out their big secret! Charlie and Fielding are forced to hide out from, well, everyone and find out who they really are.


Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance is one of those books where it's surprising that at least part of the idea hasn't really been done before (or if it has, I missed it) because it's so much fun! There are always actors or other celebrities that have TMZ, et al guessing 'Are they, or aren't they?' Now there's finally a book where everyone's guessing wrong....but on the actors' doing.

Besides there being the fun of Charlie (Jenna) and Fielding's (Jonah) animosity toward each other as things start, there's also a lot readers learn over the course of the book about Charlie and Fielding. We learn how they got to be the stars of a TV show--and why it may or may not be exactly what they want.

While this book is undoubtedly cute, it has substance as well. The characters and their relationships with each other develop right from page one on to the end.

Co-written by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin is an example of how a book by two authors can be even better than a book by one author. The chapters alternate between Charlie (Jenna) and Fielding's (Jonah) perspectives with, I am guessing, each author writing for the same character each time. Each character had their own distinctive voice and Charlie definitely saw Fielding differently than he saw himself, and vice versa, as well. It was little differences but things that seemed like a single author would have trouble getting entirely out of one characters head to write for the other. Basically, I loved that this was co-written.



9/10


thank you to Kate at Bloomsbury for sending me this book for review